About Us

The London Housing Registry was founded in 1984. The economic recession during this time causes a lot of hardship. People were losing jobs and homes. Our founder, Sheila Davenport, who held a leadership role for several multi-agency units, discovered that people were sleeping in the basements of several abandoned buildings. The need to help them became the driving force for the creation of the London Housing Registry.

#LHR’s success as a pilot project of United Way brought the hiring of our current Executive Director in 1986. Shelley Milos, who after working briefly at an open custody group home after graduating from university, used to drive all over London to recruit potential landlords. The London Housing Registry promoted the Homesharing program in the next few years culminating with two featured articles in the London Free Press on February 25, 1989, and the cover story in the Homes Section on August 18, 1990.

In October 1992, the London Housing Registry became a charitable, not for profit organization bringing in a pool of talent with its new Board of Directors. The London Housing Registry received consistent funding since its’ inception up until the early 1990s when the Harris Government rose to power and started cutting back on social services funding, resulting in the closing of several agencies in London. LHR lost several employees in 1996, leaving our Executive Director the lone staff.

Due to this unfortunate event, LHR moved from its original location at 388 Dundas Street to 171 Queens St. It shared an office with Information Service, now called Housing Access Centre. Shelley Milos eventually joined the offices of the London Middlesex Housing Corporation and the Housing Access Centre in 2002 in its’ current location, 379 Dundas. A milestone happened in the early 2000s; the London Housing Registry shared some history with the birth of Housing Stability Bank, originally called Rent Bank.

Since its creation in 1984, LHR has successfully housed 23,679 families and individuals in private sector housing and continue to provide housing referrals. In 2016 the LHR had 1,309 individuals and families registered for private market housing assistance and helped to house 810 of them. LHR has been a vital resource for clients seeking affordable housing, employment opportunities, training programs, and other community resources that have improved their lives. The LHR continues to maintain strong partnerships with private landlords, home owners, and property management companies on a weekly and monthly basis, updating available housing that is not necessarily advertised anywhere else and some exclusively to LHR.

Today, the London Housing Registry continues to thrive because of the loyalty and dedication of our volunteers and despite several challenges including finding new funding opportunities. – Florencio Viray

Mission – Preventing Homelessness.

Vision – To provide housing resources and support to individuals and families who are in housing crisis.